Latin America FDI: Winners & Losers

Chile is Latin America’s foreign direct
investment star. Although it has Latin America’s sixth-largest economy it
garnered the region’s second-highest FDI last year. However, as a percent of
GDP, it outperforms all other countries in Latin America, according to a Latinvex
analysis of FDI data from the United Nations Economic Commission
for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and GDP data from the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) for 2012.

The big loser? Ecuador,
which has Latin America’s lowest FDI-GDP ratio and last year managed to attract
less foreign direct investment than much smaller countries like Nicaragua and
Honduras.

Another major loser is Venezuela,
which has Latin America’s second-lowest FDI-GDP ratio after Ecuador.